Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Experts Tried to Save Some of the Doomed Elk in a Freak Situation
WyomingNews.com
04 Dec 2006
Jennifer Frazer
In late February 2004, toxicologist Merl Raisbeck and game warden Benge Brown were scavenging the Red Rim, 12 miles west of Rawlins, for clues to dozens of mysterious elk deaths. For the last few weeks, the elk had collapsed in the snow, where they lay stranded and starving until they died days or weeks later. And for some reason, the elk’s urine was a lurid red-orange. Yet they were alert and would even try to bite those who approached.
Veterinarians could find little wrong with them physically. Their muscles had some cell damage, but no traces of infection, poisoning or pollution could be found. What’s more, no one could explain why the elk were on the Red Rim at all. It was not their typical winter range n that was the Atlantic Rim, five miles to the south. And elk just miles away across Interstate 80 and on the Atlantic Rim showed no sign of illness at all.
Researchers: Buffalo Disease Hasn't Spread
The Associated Press (Posted by cjonline.com)
01 Dec 2006
Researchers say an especially virulent disease that broke out in a wild buffalo herd hasn't spread to most other herds in the state. The disease, mycoplasma bovis, causes pneumonia, mastitis and arthritis in the animals. It claimed at least 47 head at the state-owned Maxwell Wildlife Refuge near Wichita, raising concerns that other animals in the state could be infected. "The disease is not widespread in the state and we have a number of healthy herds,” said Jerry Schmidt, a retired Wildlife and Parks officer and bison rancher.
"We know that it is not a disease that spreads rapidly. It really takes the right set of conditions.” The outbreak at the Maxwell refuge caused the cancellation of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks' annual sale, a mid-November tradition for nearly 30 years. But the Kansas Buffalo Association still plans to conduct its annual sale in Salina on Saturday. Between 450 and 500 animals are expected to be consigned for sale.
Disease-Tracker Reflects on Quarter-Century Career: O.C. Vector Control's James P. Webb, Who Retires This Month, Talks About Insects, Rodents and Their Propensity for Passing Diseases on to Peopleocregister.com
04 Dec 2006
Pat Brennan
Photo courtesy of Mark Rightmire
Among the diseases that terrify us most are those that jump species, like a hobo jumping trains, rising from the world of chickens or pigs or migratory birds to infect human populations. SARS, bird flu, West Nile virus: all began as diseases among animals, then made the evolutionary leap to us. The creatures that carry them are called "vectors," and they are the subject of intensive study and sampling at the Orange County Vector Control District. The agency's veteran disease tracker, James P. Webb, 65, retires Dec. 7 after 26 years on the job, 11 years as the agency's director of science and technical services.
He shares his view of so-called "emerging" diseases, the science of tracking them and what Orange County must watch for in the future:
Q. What should Orange County residents be paying the most attention to in the realm of emergent diseases?
A. Let's run through the history. A year or two after I started, (mosquito borne) St. Louis encephalitis occurred. Then we became concerned about Lyme disease (transmitted by ticks). Then hantavirus. Then arenavirus. And we looked at different types of rat-borne diseases – rat bite fever. Now we're doing West Nile virus.
State's Bid to Save Gopher Tortoises Involves Alachua County Preserves
gainsville.com
04 Dec 2006
Nathan Crabbe
A controversial state program accelerated the loss of gopher tortoises by allowing developers to bury the reptiles alive, but two Alachua County preserves and a new state management plan could help reverse the species' decline. Ray Ashton has been operating a nearly 90-acre gopher tortoise preserve near Archer since 1996. Now he's negotiating with Alachua County Forever to put a conservation easement on the property. It would be the first time the county program used such a measure to protect land from development.
In addition, the Nature Conservancy is buying the nearby 1,300-acre Barry's Ranch property. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday will vote on purchasing the land for a gopher tortoise preserve. It would reimburse the conservancy the $10 million cost out of a fund made up of fees charged to developers who bury tortoises. As many as 70,000 gopher tortoises have been buried in the last 14 years under the system.
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